DCO- Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 37

It took nearly ten minutes, given the decreased amount of DPS they had, but they finally brought Hokey Pokey down. When it’s health hit 0, the skull at the base of the pitchfork flashed with a bright light, before it shattered, a crazed, cackling escaping past James and the others before it faded into eerie nothingness.

With the skull shattered, and the magic animating it gone, the pitchfork itself crumbled apart, and a rift appeared where it had been. Swirling black and red energy formed into an oval, nearly six feet tall, and roughly four foot wide. From the oval emerged a laughing and chatting Z, Med Ic, and Elm, as well as Z’s animal companions.

“About time you guys brought it down,” Elm said as he looked pointedly at Faust. “Weren’t you bragging just the other day that your DPS was the highest in our party? What took so long?”

“Just because it’s the highest in the party,” Faust countered, “doesn’t mean I can make up for losing not one, but two of the other DPS dealers in our party.”

“We left you with Nyx and Ifrit,” Med Ic replied, nodding towards the massive Djinn. Ifrit was sweating, literally. Small bits of flame dripped down his face and bare chest, before falling to the ground, leaving sizzling scorch marks. The Djinn had been moving, nonstop, the entire battle. Hokey Pokey’s evasion chance really had made the fight hard on him.

“It was still a high level unique boss fight,” Faust added, “if you wanted to burn it fast, you should have stayed out here with us.” He looked around, “though, honestly, it probably did go better than it should have. Rue’s quite the healer.” He winked at Rue, “probably better than you actually, Med Ic.”

“Hey now,” Z interrupted before Med Ic could respond, “no need to insult Med Ic. Besides, it was good that he came when he did. I needed help with the Pitchfork’s friends on the other side.”

Z’s grin told James he’d made some sort of joke, but James didn’t get it.

“What did happen when you grabbed the pitchfork?” James asked, deciding it wasn’t worth dwelling on whatever old school humor Z had. “You disappeared from here, and your name was greyed out. But that’s all I could tell.”

“The boss fight is apparently a two-fer.” Z said, nodding back to the crackling portal that was already shrinking. “Not sure if it has other ways to teleport adventurers to that realm, or its just for anyone foolish enough to grab it, but it’s a pretty weird situation regardless. Takes you to a massive, well… farm.”

“Like, just a different variant of this floor?” James asked.

“Nope. The layout was nothing like this floor. The one we were teleported to felt well, more authentically farm-like. Though the farm animals were all demonic farm animals. There were a ton of them too. All level 75. They aggroed onto me the moment I appeared there, and it was all I could do to hold them off before Med Ic and Elm arrived.”

“I think they’re a mechanic for the fight,” Elm added, “pretty sure the boss has some sort of way to summon those farm animals to the instance in which everyone is fighting it. Us being there and killing them, likely prevented that from happening. Though, on top of the swarms of demonic farm animals, the air itself was toxic. We were taking about one percent of our hp every ten seconds as damage. I’m guessing it’s a DPS check. A group has to teleport to that alternate farm and destroy mobs, while the main group fights the actual boss. If the group that teleports falls, or no one teleports, then the boss will summon his mobs to the actual fight. And if the group outside cannot kill the boss fast enough, eventually the group that teleported to the other farm will likely fall from the constant battling and life drain.”

James had to admit, he liked the sound of that. He’d faced bosses like it of course, during his time playing large scale MMOs in immersion like Warcraft Universe, aka WU. He’d had a few interesting fights on his warlock character there in fact, where the mechanic actually separated him from his summons, which forced him to have to play a completely different style for the fight. Challenges outside of the norm were refreshing for MMO players after all, and he’d appreciated it. After… that is, he’d vented his frustration over the mechanic more than a few times after some tragic raid wipes.

“Any way,” Z pointed towards a chest that had appeared in place of the haystack Hokey Pokey had been stuck in. “Should we grab our loot and keep going?”

“Here’s hoping for something good,” Oak said, rubbing his hands together eagerly, “daddy needs another unique item.”

“Another unique item,” Z said with a mock sneer, “how about you share the luck and let me get one for once.”

“I’m sure sooner or later the Goddess of Luck will bless you with something good,” Rue said, shooting James a mischievous wink as she did. “Maybe not here, but eventually.”

“There’s a reason I offer her a platinum coin every time I step foot on the first floor,” Z replied, completely unaware that Rue was the afore mentioned goddess. “Increased loot drop and rarity chances are too good to pass up. Especially at our levels.”

The others all nodded, and moved towards the chest. It glowed with crimson and black demonic energy, the same as had been emanating from the skull around Hokey Pokey.

“Speaking of levels,” James said, a grin on his own face. “I’m nearly three quarters of the way to level 80, thanks to the achievements we’d just received.”

“How many achievements did you get?” Z asked as he neared the chest.

“Two,” James answered, looking over the two of them as he spoke.

Achievement Unlocked- Got Good – Defeat a Unique Boss that has been summoned in a Hard Mood instance

Reward- 10,000xp, 25 Platinum

Achievement Unlocked- Try Hard – Clear a Hard Mood Instance

Reward- 15,000xp, 30 Platinum, Title: Dungeon Veteran

Dungeon Veteran: Increases experience gained for party when clearing Hard Mood instances by 1% per member with this title, up to 5% max.

The title was nice, James had to admit, but the experience bonus and financial gain had been even better. Of course, with what he made as the Dungeon Core, platinum itself wasn’t all that important to him anymore. And that was if he wasn’t considering the fact that there was the very real potential that real world money wouldn’t matter if the Government got away with their plan... The experience then was the best. From level 79 to 80, it took adventurers 35,200xp. Those two achievements had gotten him more than half of what he needed, and he’d already had some from the Siege Event. Meaning, he, and Rue, were on the cusp of reaching level 80. It wasn’t the main purpose of this dungeon run, of course, but James wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to hit level 80. Especially since Steve had confirmed Developer Avatars didn’t give their experience to the dungeon upon their deaths, meaning there was no reason for him to ‘accidently’ get killed for the greater good of the dungeon.

“Next time you’ll have to be on the away team and get teleported.” Z said with a grin, pulling James from his musing. The Guild leader’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Faust and Oak. “Elm, Med Ic, and I got a total of four. Those two, one for getting teleported to a special boss realm, and one for surviving in the boss realm until you defeated him.”

“Now who’s the lucky one,” Oak grumbled, as Z opened the treasure. His eyes gleamed, and he laughed before Z could respond, as each party member received their loot from the Unique Boss Chest. “Never mind,” Oak said, his axe disappearing from his hand, to be replaced with an exact replica of Hokey Pokey in his hand. “It’s still me.”